From Jijona, Alicante or yema, that’s how Dunia María’s grandmother named them when she talked about the Christmas nougats she had eaten in the past. The Berlin wall had to fall and dollarization came to Cuba for the then adolescent to know those sweets. Now, inflation threatens to disappear them at the end of the year where not only pork has skyrocketed in price.
“They have not sold nougat in stores in Cuban pesos,” laments the woman who is already 44 years old. “A friend told me that they were taking out little by little in some foreign exchange stores, but I don’t have MLC card (freely convertible currency), so don’t even dream of it “.
For decades, when atheism became more fierce in Cuba, not only were practically all Christmas festivities canceled, but the products associated with Christmas Eve also disappeared. Grapes, cider and nougat became petty bourgeois symbols that few dared to miss in public.
“Even the little trees disappeared from the living rooms of the houses, but people continued to tell stories and my grandmother’s favorite had to do with nougats,” recalls Dunia María, born in the mid-1970s when extremism against religiosity had reached its highest point.
Now, it is not the orthodox of the Communist Party or the neighbors who betrayed whoever hung a garland that worries the woman, but the lack of purchasing power of the currency with which she earns her salary. “I charge between 4,300 and 4,700 pesos every month in my position in a dependency of Aguas de La Habana,” he explains.
“Even the little trees disappeared from the living rooms of the houses, but people continued to tell stories and my grandmother’s favorite had to do with nougats”
In the absence of foreign exchange, Dunia María would have to acquire them in the informal market where this year-end the euro exceeds 85 pesos and the dollar follows closely with a value of 73 pesos for each one. But it is not enough to make the sacrifice of transmuting your national currency into another foreign one, depositing the result in the bank and queuing the market at MLC.
“There are no nougats,” said an employee of the foreign exchange store on Boyeros and Camagüey streets in the Cuban capital on Tuesday. In the vast market, customers jostled in the aisles to reach for the few beers that remained, and many asked desperately for other Christmas merchandise, but they didn’t have “either on the shelves or in the warehouses,” a worker shouted at the top of his voice. .
At the exit of the premises, in the parking area, a young woman with a backpack on her shoulders offered nougat from Alicante, Jijona and yolk from the Spanish brands Monerris and El Artesano. “I also have other varieties of marzipan and candied fruits,” added the informal saleswoman when someone showed interest in the merchandise. But the price made many give up: 400 Cuban pesos each.
The merchants who offer their goods on-line Through portals focused on purchases made by immigrants for their relatives on the island, they were even more skillful. “A bottle of cider, three Christmas nougats and a raw turkey for 120 dollars,” announced one of these digital sites that accompanied the offer with tree emojis.
For those who don’t want to buy a multi-product combo, each nougat sells for $ 10.83, nearly triple what they cost in stores at MLC when they can be reached. Although Christmas is a time for additional spending on families and for merchants to take advantage of the shopping euphoria, this year’s prices in Cuba break any mold.
“I have not been able to buy pork, I will not pay for the nougat at that price and I do not put the Christmas lights because this has been a very hard year”
“I was going to buy a nougat from Alicante for my mother, who is spending Christmas alone in Havana, but I cannot pay ten dollars for one of those. It is not a question of money but of common sense,” acknowledges a Cuban emigrant living in Mexico that reviewed the prices of the product on various digital portals.
The island’s private merchants have been producing a local version of Alicante for years that has fans and detractors. Without the decorated box, a bit harder and with more sugar than the traditional Spanish recipe, many see it as a minor product that does not meet the expectations of the Christmas holidays.
But this “Cuban-style” nougat has not been saved from the rise, and now its price ranges between 50 and 70 pesos. “I could not buy pork, I am not going to pay the nougat at that price and I do not put the Christmas lights because this has been a very hard year and I do not see anything to celebrate with so many colors “, sentenced this Wednesday a pensioner in the agricultural market of Tulipán street .
“I spent more than 40 years of my life without eating nougat, living from the memory, so this year I will return to that, to the memory that is what I have left.”
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